Pakmara redux: Re-imagining the pak'ma'ra in A Call to Arms 2E. Part 1

The pak'ma'ra in A Call to Arms have the unenviable distinction of being the weakest faction in the game. The Drazi are a strong contender for this position but the carrion eaters beat them out. I have previously written a fleet review of the faction so you can read that for an in depth assessment of the fleet, but in short, They have a limited number of ships most of which arent even pak'ma'ra ships but borrowed from other races, and their ships are on the weak side. Their faction rules are also, awful. It looks very much like a deadline was pending and minimal effort was made.

This contrasts a lot with the Babylon 5 Wars fleet which is well rounded. It doesn't quite have the number of ships and variants as the major races, but it does have a good selection of hulls. the fleet is also quite interesting. Being unhappy as I am with the pak'ma'ra I decided (with a little help from Ginge) to adapt the ships from Babylon 5 Wars into a usable fleet for A Call to Arms. They are playtested but not as thoroughly as I would like. Thankfully since the game uses a priority system instead of a points system there are plenty of benchmarks we can use for balancing purposes. be mindful though, if you use these ships, and I hope you do (and let me know how it goes) that they may be more or less powerful than other ships in other fleets of equivalent level.

The pak'ma'ra fleet list

Priority level: Patrol

Por'fa'tis Medium fighter wing (4 flights)
Sho'bog'na patroller

Priority level: Skirmish
Tra'shu'li-class armed liner
Pa'da'shar-class troop liner
Ar'tees-class battle transport
Urik'hal -class fast destroyer
Urik'tal-class fast escort

Priority level: Raid
Sim'sall'e-class transport cruiser
Sim'tork'a-class survey cruiser
Pla'sall'e-class wave cruiser

Resh'kas'u-class light carrier

Priority level: Battle
Thar'not'ak-class plasma cruiser

Priority level: War
Pshul'shi-class dreadnought

Pak'ma'ra special rules.

One of the most significant weaknesses of the pak'ma'ra in ACTA are their faction rules. they have awful initiative with the worst in the game and very little in the way of ability to improve it. This terrible initiative also applies to any allied fleets. I decided to change this slightly to reflect how the pak'ma'ra are portrayed in the fluff from Agents of Gaming. They are pacifists and not very good at making independent decisions. they do however see the need for this and have a training programme to produce competent and decisive captains. I therefore decided that their initiative should be based on the experince of the captains, and this could be best represented by Initiative being dependent on the highest priority level of the ship.

Command and Control: Pak’ma’ra find commanding ships difficult and require extensive training to act in a command role. Therefore, Pak’ma’ra initiative is determined by the highest priority ship in the fleet as follows.

Patrol -2

Skirmish -1

Raid 0

Battle +1

War +2

This is checked in the initiative phase of each turn. Ships which are crippled, Skeleton crewed or have received a ‘Bridge hit’ critical are ignored.
In a Combined LONAW or Army of Light fleet this ability is ignored as pak’ma’ra are not trained to cooperate with other races and they will instead have their base initiative.


The second special rule is to do with their plasma web. This is an area of effect weapon and its characteristics don't translate very easily from B5W to ACTA. My solution was to simply give the pak'ma'ra ships interceptors and then take a page from the 1E rules and give them all anti fighter weapons. I'm not a fan of the anti-fighter trait and the official iteration producing energy mines creates a situation where the plasma webs are much, much, more powerful than they ought to be. they are a defensive and anti-fighter system rather than an anti ship weapon.

Plasma Web; Pak’ma’ra ships are equipped with defensive plasma webs. This creates a targeted and thus localised area of high energy plasma which is effective against small craft such as fighters and breaching pods.
Against any other targets the plasma web or advanced plasma web are also considered to have the ‘weak’ trait

Pak'ma'ra Initiative: -2

The ships.

The pak'ma'ra fleet in Babylon 5 Wars is a completely different beast to the one in ACTA. Their ships are all pak'ma'ra for a start, so no ships borrowed from other races and far from being slow and lumbering the pak'ma'ra fleet is disturbingly quick. They aren't agile, however, and their weapon arcs are more limited than one would like. I decided to portray this speeds and lack of agility by capping their ships at 1 turn apiece, giving them reasonably high speeds but at the same time afterburners. this will make them quick when you want them to be, quicker than the fast ships of other races in a lot of cases, while at the same time limiting their turning abilities.

To maximise the potency of their speed, pak'ma'ra ships have an incredible focus of forward firepower, and a surprising amount of rear firepower. the aim of their ships is to close rapidly, unleash a torrent of fire, and then use afterburners to evade while shooting at pursuing ships. I've tried to keep the weapons consistent with those in B5W but given the differences in granularity, scale and weapon arcs, there are a lot of differences.

Por'fa'tis medium fighter.

The only fighter the pak'ma'ra possess due in large part to a lack of qualified pilots. Pak'ma'ra are not psychologically suited to act independently and this means that it is incredibly difficult for them to be trained. The fighter is fast, well armed but not particularly agile. This is represented by the relatively low dogfight score and a dodge of 3+ and quite potent armament. It is very difficult for the pak'ma'ra to field large numbers of them and they lack any fleet carriers of their own so they will usually have to fall back on their plasma webs to defend against enemy fighters. In the event that they are able to break through enemy fighters they have a good standoff capability with their long range weapons making them a good strike fighter.

Sho'bog'na patroller

This is the smallest ship operated by the pak'ma'ra and is used as a patrol ship and training vessel. The poor quality of the crew is represented by the low initiative if it is the largest ship you bring. The Sho'bog'na is more agile in B5W than this version but I wanted the whole fleet to have a common feature in their combination of speed and lack of agility.

In return for this the ship is reasonably well armed with all round plasma cannons and protection is in the form of the Interceptors which will stop light speculative fire and of course its plasma web. 

Tra'shu'li-class armed liner.

The Tra'shu'li is a frigate sized transport ship that is very heavily armed. It usually transports passengers but it can also carry cargo, but it rarely does. 
Firepower is concentrated forwards leaving it vulnerable to attacks from the side or rear given its poor turning characteristics. It is very tough for a skirmish ship though so can take a beating.

Pa'da'shar-class troop liner.

Trading the heavy plasma cannons for plasma accelerators the Pa'da'shar is a variant of the Tra'shu'li that is used for deploying troops into contested areas. Its also one of the few pak'ma'ra ships that carries small craft, in this case it has a pair of breaching pods to provide a very interesting threat profile. This is also the pak'ma'ra assault ship with a high number of troops and shuttles.

Ar'tees-class battle transport.

Another conversion of the Tra'shu'li, this version is converted to be able to carry a small number of fighters and has additional plasma webs installed. It is undergunned compared to the Tra'shu'li and Pa'da'shar but brings a lot of utility. It has more plasma web shots and it carries a fighter flight. In return for these abilities it has a lot less in the way of firepower compared to the previous 2 ships

Urik'hal-class fast destroyer.

One of the fastest ships in the Pak'ma'ra fleet the Urik'hal has a very powerful forward armament, which combined with the ships speed means it can get to an advantageous position quickly. The tradeoff is that the ship is neither particularly tough nor agile meaning careful employment is essential.

Urik'tal-class fast escort.

The Pak'ma'ra solution to their lack of fighters and thus their fleets vulnerability to them is the Urik'tal. It trades a good portion of its offensive firepower for additional plasma webs. I decided to make it stand out a bit more by giving it an improved version in the form of the advanced plasma web (my creation). This makes it a lot closer in capability to the escorts of other races with its extended range.

Sim'sall'e-class transport.

Larger than the Tra'shu'li, the Sim'sall'e was originally designed as a liner and cargo transport. It's large size and configuration made it easy to convert into a capable warship while retaining a respectable amount of cargo space. The ship has a good deal of firepower concentrated forwards and very healthy damage thresholds that put it among the toughest of the Raid level ships, still quite far behind the T'Loth in toughness though, as are most ships to be fair.

Sim'tork'a-class survey transport.

A simple conversion of the Sim'sall'e, the Sim'tork'a is an exploration ship equipped with a jump drive and additional sensors for conducting surveys. It can be pressed into war service where the ship provides valuable electronic warfare abilities.

Pla'sall'e-class wave cruiser.

The pak'ma'ra acquired a number of plasma wave launchers from the Markab and then installed them onto converted sim'sall'e hulls. The defensive capabilities of the ship were enhanced somewhat with the addition of several extra plasma webs. The ship has similar long range firepower to the Dilgar Omelos or Targrath and is the only pak'ma'ra ship with considerable long range firepower. this comes at the expense of close in weapons. In a long range exchange the high interceptors will give it an advantage, but up close the ship is vulnerable.

Resh'kas'u-class light cruiser.

The Resh'kas'u is more a light cruiser than it is a carrier. the pak'ma'ra have great difficulty training pilots so their fighter squadrons are usually under strength. while they would have no problem designing a carrier with extensive launch and recovery capabilities, it would be a waste since they would struggle to find the qualified pilots to fill the fighters. The solution was a fast and heavily armed cruiser with more limited launch capabilities. The addition of a jump drive means the Resh'kas'u can get out of trouble almost as quickly as she gets into it.

The fighters are a nice bonus to a cruiser that concentrates most of its firepower forward. It lacks the quite powerful side batteries of the Sim'sall'e  and instead has an improved forward armament, as well as rear chasers so it can engage enemies behind it.

Thar'not'ak-class plasma cruiser.

One of the rarest ships in the pak'ma'ra fleet the Thar'not'ak is a purpose built attack ship. Most pak'ma'ra ships are either converted from merchant designs and so have extensive cargo capacity. on the Thar'not'ak this is something of an afterthought, instead the ship is built to carry as many weapons as possible to an engagement and use them to destroy any opposition. The size of the weapons mounted means that they have limited traverse so the Thar'not'ak is able to only engage targets to its front or rear. This suits it well as it will close rapidly with a target, engage, and then use rear batteries to discourage pursuit.

Pshul'shi-class dreadnought.

The Largest ship in the pak'ma'ra ship follows a similar philosophy to the Thar'not'ak, that being carrying as may weapons as possible. Like the Resh'kas'u and Thar'not'ak there is considerable emphasis placed on weapons mounted fore and aft but the side batteries have not been neglected allowing the ship to engage enemies who approach from any aspect. Notably the Pshul'shi is the only pak'ma'ra ship to mount the ranged fuser, a particularly potent, if slow firing' primary weapon.

There are several more pak'ma'ra variants with alternative weapons as well as a selection of fanon ships from various sources that I will be looking at. I have also not included the Var'shun'e which was the topic of a Shipyard over a year ago. The design should be usable, although i would swap the anti-fighter for a plasma web to keep it in line with the ships above.

I hope you enjoy these alternative designs. If you do find the time to play a few games with them I would be delighted to know your thoughts and get some feedback. Our initial play testing has them being at around the correct level power wise, but that's a few games between a small number of people so our experiences might not be representative.

Next time we will delve into Night City for session 0 of a cyberpunk campaign where we try desperately to get the rules right, not die, and look cool. we were partially successful.

If you like what I do, please consider supporting me on Patreon or buy me a nice cup of Coffee.

thanks for reading, and I will see you next time.

Thanks to Ginge for helping me out
Miniature STL's by Tyrel Lohr
Miniatures painted by me
Photography by me.